Language: English
Published: 15th December, 2017
Length: 63,000 words (approx).
ISBN: Paperback: 978-1-78645-182-8
eBook: 978-1-78645-183-5
ASIN: B077TVN1VM
Category: Fiction
Genre: LGBT, Romance and Relationships, Health, Family and Lifestyle, Contemporary Fiction
URL: http://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/alovesong
Available on Kindle Unlimited
Blurb:
Simon had always expected love to feel different than this. Whether it was his Catholic upbringing or the poetry he'd read - Simon had thought that true love would be uplifting, fulfilling, that it would give a meaning to his loitering, and add joy to his leisure. But not this kind of love. This love was a flesh-eating monster, sharp-clawed and evil-eyed, ravishing his mind with medieval cruelty.
Dr Simon Mráz is a respected specialist and lecturer at the Charles University in Prague. He is a serious man, responsible. His students call him The Cruel Doctor Frost not because he's unkind, but because of his unwavering, ice-cold composure. As a psychiatrist, he values sanity. And sanity can be found in work, restraint, and self-control.
Not many know of that one time in the past when The Cruel Doctor Frost lost his cool. His ill-advised, secret affair with a student left Simon deeply wounded. Since that day, every minute of Simon's life has been a struggle to remain sane, functioning. He's managed so far - as long as he is needed, as long as his work makes a difference, Simon can scrape together enough strength to get up in the morning and run off the nightmares. But when his friends begin drifting away, his beloved protégé becomes independent, and the man who bereaved Simon of his precious sanity might return... Simon's mind and body stop responding to his impressive willpower.
***
Editor's Review:
Where does one escape to when the danger is in one's own head? In Simon's case (as for many of us), it's to his work. He's existing, functioning, far from living, and the effect is a 'wordscape' that is perfectly illustrated by the colours of the cover. Simon's world for the most part is shades of grey. The colour...well, we know from the very first chapter where, or indeed, with whom the colour resides.
This novel is dark, and I don't mean full of the gruesome and grisly. It's way cleverer than that - subtler, more real, and for those reasons all the more...scary?
That's not quite the word for it, because we think of 'scary' in relation to books as meaning horror and the supernatural - the stuff that is most definitely of fiction. A Love Song... is far away from those kinds of stories. It's a realist, character-driven narrative, and it stays true to that right through to the very last page, which is to say it has a 'happy' ending, but there are no instant magical fixes here. However, you can trust the author to bring you safely to the other side.
***
***
About the Author:
Queer fiction author Roe Horvat was born in the post-communist wasteland of former Czechoslovakia. Equipped with a dark sense of sarcasm, Roe traveled Europe and finally settled in Sweden. They love Jane Austen, Douglas Adams, and daiquiri, with equal passion. When not hiding in the studio doing graphics, Roe can be found trolling cafés in Gothenburg, writing, and people-watching.
Website: http://roehorvat.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roe.horvat.98
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16958818.Roe_Horvat
Comments
Post a Comment